Ninth Edition of the Most Prestigious Art Show in the Americas Announced

Matthew Marks Gallery, New York.

MIAMI.- From December 2 through 5, Miami Beach, Florida, will host the ninth edition of Art Basel Miami Beach, the international art show. More than 250 leading galleries from North America, Europe, Latin America, Asia and Africa will take part, showing works by more than 2,000 artists of the 20th and 21st centuries.

After launching last year, the Oceanfront exhibition area returns again to Art Basel Miami Beach 2010, sited in an environment designed by young architects Phu Hoang and Rachely Rotem. The Oceanfront Nights program, curated by Creative Time, spotlights the cultural scenes of Berlin, Detroit, Glasgow, and Mexico City.

Art Basel Miami Beach 2010 will run from December 2 through December 5, 2010, with an exclusive VIP opening on December 1. Galleries selected from 29 countries will showcase paintings, drawings, sculptures, installations, photography, editions, and videos. The shows list of participating galleries makes Art Basel Miami Beach the most prestigious art show of the Americas, featuring both highly established galleries and dynamic newcomers. (The full list of exhibitors can be found at www.artbasel.com/sectors). Prices range from a few hundred dollars, for multiples by young artists, to several million dollars for museum-quality masterpieces.

Prominent guests from around the world will attend the exclusive opening on December 1. Many major global museums are organizing trips to Florida, and numerous groups of art collectors from Latin America and Europe have already announced their visits. During the shows five-day run, more than 40,000 visitors are expected at Art Basel Miami Beach 2010.

Art Kabinett sectorIn the Art Kabinett program, galleries selected for the Art Galleries sector present small curated exhibitions in a separately delineated space within their booth. The exhibition concepts for the 20 Art Kabinetts are diverse, including thematic group exhibitions, art-historical solo shows and showcases for rising stars.

Art Nova sectorIn this years Art Nova sector, 50 emerging and established galleries from 17 countries are presenting new works by either two or three artists. In all, recent pieces by 131 artists will be on display, providing visitors an opportunity to see pieces fresh from studios around the globe - and making the sector an ideal place to spot the newest artistic tendencies.

Art PublicArt Public, curated for the second time by Patrick Charpenel of Guadalajara, Mexico, features projects by internationally renowned artists. Selected from proposals by the galleries of Art Basel Miami Beach, the projects are installed in the outdoor public spaces of Miami Beach, within close proximity to Oceanfront area and the Miami Beach Convention Center. These works will engage directly with the spectator, interrupting the daily routine of passersby in poetic and surprising ways.

The OceanfrontOccupying an entire city block directly at the heart of Miami Beachs waterfront, the Oceanfront exhibition area will be purpose-built for the presentation of contemporary art, performance, video, and live music every night. Selected by Art Basel Miami Beach and Creative Time as the winners of an architectural contest, architects Phu Hoang and Rachely Rotem will deploy thousands of feet of reflective rope to create this temporary space.

The Oceanfront Nights program for 2010 features four cities at the forefront of todays artistic experimentation and cross-disciplinary collaboration: Berlin, Detroit, Glasgow, and Mexico City. From December 1 to December 4, the diverse program will spotlight one city per night, featuring music, video, performances and more. Art Basel Miami Beach and Creative Time have invited four organizations to partner on creating these Oceanfront nights - the Museum of Contemporary Art in Detroit, Museo Tamayo in Mexico City, Tramway in Glasgow, and 032c in Berlin.

Art Basel ConversationsArt Basel Conversations offers audiences access to first-hand information on important aspects of the international artworld, starting the program with the traditional Artist Talk Premiere featuring a legendary artist. Topics for the following panel discussions include 'Public/Private: Museums in the Digital Age,' 'Latin America: The Collector as Catalyst' and 'Artistic Practice: The School Makers.' Distinguished artists, art collectors, museum directors, curators, critics, gallerists, publishers, and others active in the cultural sphere will take part. There is time allotted after each Art Basel Conversation for the audience to meet the panel informally.

Art SalonSituated in the entrance D area of the Miami Beach Convention Center, Art Salon is a platform for discussion by artworld figures presenting their projects, with an emphasis on the most current themes in contemporary art. Informal in format but international in scope, it also features book launches, artist talks, roundtable discussions and lectures.

Art FilmArt Film is curated by Zurich film connaisseur This Brunner and will feature the award-winning film 'Waste Land,' which follows renowned artist Vik Muniz as he journeys from his home base in Brooklyn to his native Brazil and the world's largest garbage dump, Jardim Gramacho, located on the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro. There he photographs an eclectic band of 'catadores' - pickers of recyclable materials, to create a new series of works.

Museums and Private CollectionsOnce again, Miamis leading private collections  among them the Rubell Family Collection, CIFO, the de la Cruz Collection Contemporary Art Space and Home, and the Dacra Collection  will be opening their homes and warehouses to guests of the international art show. The museums of South Florida, too, will be staging important exhibitions to coincide with Art Basel Miami Beach, including: 'Susan Rothenberg: Moving in Place' at the Miami Art Museum; 'Isaac Julien' at the Bass Museum; 'John Storrs: Machine-Age Modernist' and 'Nick Cave: Meet Me at the Center of the Earth' at the Norton Museum; 'Seduce Me,' a collaboration by Isabella Rossellini, Andy Byers, and Rick Gilbert at the Wolfsonian-FIU; 'Bruce Weber: Haiti/Little Haiti' and 'Jonathan Meese: Sculpture' at MOCA Miami; Jim Drain at Locust Projects and the Pearl and Stanley Goodman Latin American Collection at the Museum of Art, Fort Lauderdale.